Malcolm arrived at her quarters a little earlier than planned. For once he wanted to be ahead of Hayes. The man seemed to be everywhere he looked these days and he couldn't seem to shake him off. Though if he was being honest, he should be partly blaming Meara for that. She seemed to be actively encouraging his presence. For the life of him, he couldn't think why. He had imparted her with having better taste in company…

Before he'd even hit the chime, her lyrical tone sounded through the door. "Come in, Malcolm!"

She was sitting on the floor in meditative pose. "I'm sorry…" he began. "No worries, Mal," she said, rising in one move. "I was just finishing up anyway."

She gave him a little smile and a tilt of the head. "Wanting to get the jump on the Major?"

"Good grief," he muttered, placing the bottle of Scotch on her desk, "am I really that obvious?"

She gave him a hug as she chuckled. "Only to me, old friend, only to me." She stepped back and gave him a serious appraising look. "What is it with you two anyway?" She folded her arms waiting for an answer. She knew what it was but she needed to hear how Malcolm interpreted their relationship.

He looked her dead in the eye. "I don't trust him."

Her expression just about summed up what she thought of that statement. Malcolm could have fit a football in her mouth and still there'd be room for his foot.

"You have got to be joking. This is gonna be good. I can't wait to hear this." She looked at the chronometer. "We have twenty minutes before he gets here, so come on. Spill it."

"Speaking of Hayes, why DO you enjoy his company so much? He's little more than a military tool in an arsenal of more useful tools..."

"Well, Malcolm Reed, that just goes to show how little you know. Have you ever had a conversation with the man beyond military tactics and weaponry?"

Now that he thought about, no he hadn't. He met Meara's eye and he knew she knew she had him bang to rights. Damn her. "I've missed you so much," he said sarcastically, as he flopped down on her bed.

"Anyway, enough of the misdirection, Mal." She grabbed some tumblers from underneath her bed. "Like I said, out with it."

So sitting opposite each other on the bed, scotch in hand, for the next thirty minutes, he proceeded to brief her on the nature of their relationship since the MACOs arrival on board prior to the Xindi mission.

"Feel better for that?" she enquired. "Irritatingly, I do," he replied before swallowing a deep draft of his drink. "I'd forgotten how good it was to share with someone I trusted."

"Afraid I have to correct you there, Mr Reed. I'm someone you ALLOWED yourself to trust and I think it's about time you extended that courtesy to someone else who could be a most loyal and dedicated ally."

Malcolm sat up. "How can you say that after everything I've just told you?"

"Frankly, Mal, everything you've just told me sounds a lot like your overactive imagination giving its own imagination a run for its money…"

"Now listen here…" The chime sounded.

"Speaking of allies-in-arms…" Malcolm glared at her. "Come in, Major!"

Hayes' impressive bulk filled the door to her quarters as he stepped over the threshold and into the light of the cabin. He was dressed casually, and short of the sweats he normally wore in the gym when they were training or working out, Malcolm couldn't recall ever imagining, never mind seeing him, in this scenario. He looked relaxed… He looked good… Malcolm's breath caught in his throat at the direction of his thoughts.

Meara didn't bother to get off the bed. She was aiming to give the air as relaxed a quality as she could permeate it with in an effort to encourage Reed and Hayes to open up. "You're late, Major." Her motives for bringing them together were honourable. She needed them on the same page for this mission to be a success, though she knew the fringe benefits might pay off for both of them as well. If they allowed it.

The corner of his mouth slanted upwards. "Apologies. Ensign. It wasn't my intention to slight the invitation, but I thought given that you and the Lieutenant haven't had much time to reacquaint yourselves, it was best to give you a little space to do just that."

Malcolm had actually thought Hayes incapable of such consideration. He wasn't about to give him any credit for that though. Old habits, he surmised. "How thoughtful, Major."

Hayes twitched but pretended to ignore the slight and continued as he approached the desk and placed his bottle gently down. "If I'm completely honest, I don't really know why you invited me along." Malcolm put his glass by the bed and stood up. "Well that makes two of us, Hayes…"

Meara gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh for pity's sake, Mal. Put it away, would you?"

Malcolm sat on the bed again and Hayes had never seen such a look. Enterprise's steely Head of Security looked positively chastised. Hayes went for it.

"Any chance you can remain on Enterprise, Ambassador? I think the sight of Lieutenant Reed sitting on the naughty step every so often would do my morale no end of good."

Malcolm stared at him like he had three heads. The storm in his eyes threatened to shoot lightning bolts that would reduce Hayes to a pile of ash at his feet. Hayes held his ground as Reed levelled up to him. "That kind of insubordination could earn you a sleepover in the brig. Major."

"In case you hadn't noticed, Sir, we aren't on duty…" "That doesn't mean you should take a night off from respecting your senior officer." "Respect, Lieutenant? I'm surprised the word is part of your vocabulary." Hayes was looking Reed in the eye. Well, thought Meara, time to step in. Because if the sparks get any bigger there was risk of fire starting in her quarters.

From the direction of the bed, Meara began laughing. "Well, gentlemen. I'd say this bonding session has gotten off to a magnificent start, wouldn't you?"

Both men tore their eyes from each other and gave her equally incredulous looks, repeating the words simultaneously that threw them both off guard. "BONDING SESSION?!"

Two hours and a bottle of scotch later, Matthew Hayes had tears in his eyes from the images being conjured up by Meara of Malcolm Reed, amongst them, one of him tied to the Head of the Academy's Department of Engineering's office chair in nothing but his graduation robes with a "Happy Birthday, Mr McNulty!" sign hanging around his neck. Malcolm was crimson with embarrassment but when Hayes began opening up and sharing tales from his past, he realised that maybe letting someone in wasn't quite as awful as phasing oneself in the foot. Annoyingly, Meara was correct in her assertions about Hayes. Reed had been too busy mistrusting and disliking the man to look for anything remotely human past the military mask.

Once they got their mirth under control and the tales of humiliation out of the way, the topic of conversation moved onto more the personal.

"So how long did you both have a relationship?" Hayes enquired while staring at the bottom of his glass.

"Oh, Mal and I have never been more than very good friends." She gave Malcolm a wide-eyed look and batted her eyelashes. "I'm really not his type," she cooed.

"I beg to differ, my dear, you bloody well are my type," he retorted heatedly.

"Now Mal we both know that is not true. You find me attractive and easy to be around, but you like the idea of loving someone like me. There's a difference."

"Well, my parents adored you…" Meara barked out a laugh. "Well frankly, that should have set off the warning klaxons straight away!"

Hayes chuckled again. He really should stop drinking and leave. Both Meara and Reed were starting to look even more attractive than he had previously afforded them in his more sober moments. He stood up. He was really starting to wish he'd had the time while on leave to take the edge off.

"Oh no you don't, Hayes! You stay right where you are."

"It's late, I really should go." Meara squinted at the chronometer. "It's only 2230. I expect someone of your stature to possess more stamina, Major," she said with a note of amusement in her voice.

"I've got plenty of stamina, I'll have you know," he teased back.

"Prove it and stay for another round then," she said, gesturing him to pass his tumbler. "Besides," she continued as she poured, "you still haven't graced Mal and I with a tale from your personal archive?"

"Not much to tell really… There's a reason us military types are cut they way we are." After this evening, Malcolm suspected nothing could be further from the truth and Hayes was being his usual evasive self. Takes one to know one, he thought.

"Don't horde, Hayes," he shot back at him. "If this…. bonding doodah is going to work, you're going to have to do better than that. And as far as I'm concerned, what's said in these quarters, stays in these quarters."

Meara was looking at him like she knew more than she was letting on, which of course she did. "Tell us about your family. That's a nice easy place to kick off."

He looked a little pained at the thought but began, "well my parents—" He started as Meara leaned forward and rested a hand on his knee. "Not that family, Matthew." Her voice had taken on a softness that could have hypnotised a snake. "Your other family…"

Hayes glanced up at her. She was smiling gently. Reed was looking at him like he was seeing him for the first time.

Hayes swallowed hard. "I— I— can't. It's too painful." He drained his glass in one gulp. "I really have to hit the sack."

He headed for the door and turned to look at them both as it opened before him. "Thanks for the hospitality, Ambassador. Despite my initial reservations, I had a good time." He looked at Reed, eyes shining. "See you both at the strategy meeting in the morning."

He stepped into the corridor and was gone.

Reed was gazing thoughtfully after him. "Care to let me in on what the blazes that little exchange was all about?"

"Seriously Malcolm? For such a bright lad, you can be insufferably dumb sometimes." Meara stared at the door. Of course, she had read up on the senior staff on Enterprise before accepting the mission. She needed to know she was being put in the best possible hands and the mission had the best possible chance of success.

"Hayes was married. He lost his husband and their daughter in the Xindi attack."

She heard his glass as it bounced off the deck. "Oh God. No."

He put his hand across his eyes and screwed them shut as he tugged his hair through his hand. "I really am an insufferable ass aren't I?"